Merry Christmas!

Here's some pictures (mostly from Christmas Eve) of our holiday fun....

The girls sporting their new Christmas PJ's...


Cutie Pie looking super cute...

Leaving cookies for Santa...

We had a fun surprise this year. Someone (we still don't know who) gave us the 12 days of Christmas! The girls got so excited when they heard the knock at the door each night. We got so many generous gifts! The first night was a gingerbread house kit which we had lots of fun putting together.

We also got a cute fleece snowman blanket. Here they are having fun sharing it (at least for a moment).

We really enjoyed our mystery Santa and maybe next year we can do that for someone else. We hope everyone had a great holiday!

Random fun

I've kept my camera in my purse and got lots of cute pictures of the kids (are there any other kind?). Here's Ladd and Cutie Pie getting ready to slide at the park.

Sweetie on the swing...

Cutie Pie playing in the rocks. This pic reminds me a lot of Popcorn; she made the same 'oohhh' face all the time. Cutie Pie also followed in her big sister's tracks by eating some rocks. Yum.

We stopped by a sporting goods store to acquire some goggles for swim class (Popcorn's broke and Sweetie's disappeared). They had lots of fun on this scooter. Here's Popcorn making her 'mean' driving face...

Cutie Pie had to have a turn too...

Here they are looking goofy in their goggles....

That's all for now!

Santa

We had our ward party on Saturday and the kids got to visit with Santa. Here's some shots of the girls:

Dentist

I finally took the kids to the dentist today! I'm pretty good about keeping up with all doctor appointments but I'm not so great about the dentist. I always dread it. So I put it off as long as possible, and today was the big day. Here they are showing their 'sparkly clean teeth' as Popcorn put it:
Now for the results: Sweetie didn't have any cavities (which is amazing to me) and she got sealants on her molars. She does have to go back for an orthodontist consult (shocker I know). Popcorn had one tiny cavity, the dentist said it was a little deeper than the sealant could handle. She didn't have to use any laughing gas or numb the tooth at all so it wasn't too bad. The dentist told her she was putting a white star on her tooth and then Popcorn wanted to show Sweetie her white star tooth. She opened wide and Sweetie loudly proclaimed that she couldn't see a star. I explained that it blended into her tooth and the dentist overheard the little exchange and laughed. The things we tell kids to get them to cooperate!

It was funny, the dentist asked if Popcorn liked candy and so I admitted that Ladd used to work for a candy company and that Popcorn LOVES starburst. Yes, I know starburst are terrible and stick to your teeth. Most dentists cringe at the word candy but she then said that her husband used to work for Nestle and they had chocolate all over the house. That was a first! Funny.

It was a long afternoon (luckily Cutie Pie didn't have to come along) but we're good until June!

Christmas parade

On Saturday we braved the cold and went to the Plano Christmas parade.

Some of us were happy about going...

Others were less than enthusiastic...

Some of us just went for the candy...

After accumulating several balloons, mini Texas state flags, coupons, and enough candy to get us through to Easter we saw the highlight of the parade (at least for me)- the pipe organ!

Scream fest

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Here's what we've been up to...

Popcorn making her turkey cookies...


Sweetie with one of her cookies. I didn't mean for the cookies to get that large, we ended up with some giant turkeys, but we had fun.

One of our traditions is to see a movie on Thanksgiving. We saw Bolt in 3D (which was kinda cool). We all enjoyed it a lot and after the movie Popcorn took the popcorn bag and wore it as a hat. What makes this funny is that she asked Ladd for the bag early on in the movie, like she was planning this little stunt for at least an hour. When it slipped down over her eyes she said: 'hey, who turned out the lights?'

Our other Texas tradition is to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel. Some people think this is terrible but we actually quite like it; everyone gets what they want and I'm not cooking and cleaning all day (or at all). Here is Cutie Pie chillin' in her booster seat (she absolutely HATES high chairs so we were glad she actually sat during a meal out).

Here is Sweetie and Ladd waiting for our food...

Popcorn and I on the other side of the table...

Yes, we were waiting for our food as well. Our waiter first brought out the rolls and also brought out the pie?!?!!! Ladd said something to him about it and the waiter just shrugged and handed over the pie. I thought it was funny (and ate my pie as an appetizer- yum!). This is what makes it fun- that would never happen at home!

Cutie Pie's 1/2 birthday!

Cutie Pis is now 18 months! This is my favorite half-birthday to celebrate because they change so much in just 6 months at this age. Here she is enjoying some ice cream. She wouldn't touch the cake.
On the other hand, Popcorn and Sweetie loved the cake (and ate it all themselves over the course of a couple days).

Here are all 3 of them in their cute matching sweater dresses. It's VERY challenging to get Cutie Pie to cooperate for posed pictures. She found her thumb and I snapped a quick photo.

What was on my camera...

The cord for my camera was temporarily misplaced but it has since been recovered. First let's start out with a picture of Cute Pie at the top of the stairs...

The staircase itself...
Now for the story. Cutie Pie became quite the expert at navigating stairs while we were at the grandparents house so I wasn't worried about her in our new place. As I suspected she climbed right up and in no time she remembered how to turn around and slide down. The playroom is at the top of the stairs so she goes up and down a lot. Not only was she confident in her abilities, she became a bit of a show off. She would stand up and turn around (facing down the stairs like someone who can actually walk down them) and wave her arms around, squeal, etc.

One night Ladd saw her tricks and told her to stop before she fell. Cutie Pie continued to flap her arms around and gibber jabber on the stairs. He walked back into the kitchen while I was working in the office (a short distance from the stairs). Not 10 seconds later we heard Sweetie shriek (she shrieks at a lot of things, such as the sight of a spider so that in and of itself isn't a good indication of anything wrong) and then a thud/tumble noise. I jumped up and caught Cutie Pie as she bounced down the stairs. She only made it about 1/3 of the way down and other than being scared she was fine.

If any good came from this it's that Cutie Pie is now rather cautious about descending the stairs. This takes us back to the first picture (taken right after the accident) where she was afraid of coming down. She has now regained her confidence and will go up and down on her own, but she hasn't shown the recklessness of before.


Here's some other pictures that were on my camera. This is Cutie Pie at swimming lessons. She was bothered that I was taking pics of the other two.

Here is Popcorn in the water. She saw me pull out the camera and smiled.

Sweetie is very good at the backstroke. She goes fast and has actually swam the entire length of the pool on her back.

I finally bought the girls those turbie twist hair towels and I'm so glad that I did! They get a bath at night and usually their hair gets their pj's all wet. This isn't a problem in the summer but as it gets cooler its not very fun to go to bed wet. Here they are modeling their new after bath look.

Halloween Fun

2 cuties posing in front of the fun Halloween banner Grandma made for us. They both wore their Hello Kitty pumpkin shirts and 'black flowy pants' on Friday. Sweetie is SO excited about not having to wear a uniform anymore!

Popcorn decided to mix things up by being a Princess and wearing her Barbie tiara and Cinderella slippers. More than one person was confused by this.

Sweetie was still Gabriella...

Waiting in line for our food at the trunk-or-treat activity.

Cutie Pie is spitting out a Sour Patch Kid candy...LOVE the look on her face! Yes, I am a totally lame mom and didn't dress her up. In my defense I couldn't find the fleece pumpkin costume for her and besides, it was a little warm for fleece. I'm sure someday she'll look at these pics and complain that I didn't dress her up...oh the life of a mom!

At home with some candy. We didn't go door to door around our neighborhood, Sweetie started answering the door to give away candy and Popcorn joined in. They thought that was more fun than trick-or-treating. Awesome!

Video clips...

Above: Cutie Pie and Popcorn having a little tea party

Below: Dancing the night away

Fun Stuff

Amidst all the packing/moving and changing schools we've had some fun. Here's some of what we've been up to....

I got some pumpkins last night and Popcorn pestered me ALL day to carve one. I finally gave in hoping for a little peace. She had a great time and that's all that matters. Here she is modeling the face she wanted me to carve. I thought it was pretty funny.



All 3 girls love to play tea party. They love it so much that we packed all those toys last. Popcorn and Cutie Pie had lots of fun playing together. I have a fun little video clip I'll try to post later.


Matching outfits...Cutie Pie doesn't enjoy posing for pictures. Hmmm, we'll have to work on that.

Cutie Pie got a hold of Popcorn's sucker while we were at the Halloween carnival at YMCA. The problem is she doesn't swallow and there were puddles of sticky slobber all over the place. I finally got it away from her and she got really mad. So young to have such a strong opinion!

In a moment of weakness I bought Sweetie and Popcorn costumes. They've been such good little troopers through all this change. Here is Sweetie as Gabriella from HSM. We're going to see the movie this weekend, we simply didn't have time when it first came out.

Popcorn is a fairy princess, or whatever she feels like calling her outfit. She got a pair of wings and a light up skirt.

There was even pizza to end the night of fun (and better yet I didn't have to make dinner!)

Last but not least here's a picture of the front of our house...

and one of the back. There are too many boxes to post any pictures of the other rooms :) We're loving our new place and every night after dinner we've been playing at the park.